Cindy Bowling

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Cindy Bowling

Prior offices

Blue Valley Schools, South area, Position 3

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Education

High school

Blue Valley Unified School District

Personal

Profession

Doctor

Contact

Personal website

Cynthia "Cindy" Bowling was a Position 3 representative on the Blue Valley Unified School District Board of Education in Kansas. She was first elected to the board on April 11, 2011. She won a second-consecutive term in the general election on April 7, 2015. Bowling participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates.

Biography

Email [email protected] to notify us of updates to this biography.

Bowling graduated from district schools and proceeded to earn her medical degree. She works as a pediatrician. She served as PTO president and patron member of the Board Advisory Finance Committee. Bowling has two children who attend district schools.

Elections

2015

See also: Blue Valley Unified School District 229 elections (2015)

Four seats were up for election on April 7, 2015: Positions 1, 2, 3, and 7. Position 1 incumbent Pam Robinson faced and defeated challenger Alana Roethle. Meanwhile, Larry Fotovich lost to Position 3 incumbent Cindy Bowling.

Position 2 incumbent Tony Thill was the only incumbent up for re-election who did not file for the race. Patrick J. Hurley was the sole candidate to file for the open seat and won the election. Also winning unopposed was at-large Position 7 incumbent Thomas Mitchell.

Results

Blue Valley Unified School District 229, Position 3 General Election, 4-year term, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Nonpartisan	Cindy Bowling Incumbent	88.2%	5,789
	Nonpartisan	Larry Fotovich	11.7%	768
	Nonpartisan	Write-in votes	0.1%	5
Total Votes				6,562
Source: Johnson County Election Office, "Election Summary Report 2015 Spring General," April 13, 2015

Funding

Bowling reported no contributions or expenditures to the Johnson County Election Office in this election.

Endorsements

Bowling was endorsed by MainPAC and The Kansas City Star.

2011

Blue Valley Unified School District, Position 3 General Election, 4-year term, 2011
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Nonpartisan	Cindy Bowling	99.3%	3,926
	Nonpartisan	Write-in votes	0.7%	27
Total Votes				3,953
Source: Johnson County Elections, "Election Summary Report 2011 Spring General," April 11, 2011

Campaign themes

2015

Ballotpedia survey responses

Bowling participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates. The following sections display her responses to the survey questions. When asked what her top priority would be if elected, the candidate made the following statement:

“	We are facing challenging financial times in the state of Kansas. Blue Valley has a long record of excellent education, and we have been fortunate to have our patrons support local option budgets and bond referendums to supplement our funding. As with any budget, we must always look for ways to ensure that our spending is both efficient and meets the needs of our students and patrons. We must re-evaluate out our current budget based on needs and benefits rather than history.	”
—Cindy Bowling (2015)

Ranking the issues

The candidate was asked to rank the following issues by importance in the school district, with 1 being the most important and 7 being the least important. This table displays this candidate's rankings from most to least important:

Education policy
Click here to learn more about education policy in Kansas.
Education on the ballot

Issue importance ranking
Candidate's ranking	Issue
1	Improving college readiness
2	Balancing or maintaining the district's budget
3	Closing the achievement gap
4	Expanding career-technical education
5	Improving education for special needs students
6	Expanding arts education
7	Expanding school choice options

Positions on the issues

The candidate was asked to answer 10 questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. The questions are in the left column and the candidate's responses are in the right column of the following table:

Question	Response
What is your stance on implementing Common Core standards?	"Common Core standards should serve as guideposts for educators to teach students to be successful in the 21st century. The responsibility of implementing the curriculum to achieve those standards should lie within the local districts, and be overseen by state boards of education."
Should your district approve the creation of new charter schools?	"No."
Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system?	"No."
Are standardized tests an accurate metric of student achievement?	"Standardized tests are one method of evaluating student achievement. Because there are many things that can influence the results of standardized testing, they should not be used as the only method."
How can the district ensure equal opportunities for high and low achieving students?	"Districts need to ensure that teachers are trained in identifying individual needs for students. Personalized learning should be provided for all students regardless of ability. We need to bring out the potential of every student."
How should expulsion be used in the district?	"Every child and every situation is different. A district should have policy guidelines in place for offenses that occur in schools, but each case must be reviewed individually to determine what is best for that student and for the entire community. Expulsion is a remedy of last resort."
If a school is failing in your district, what steps should the school board take to help the students in that school?	"The role of the board of education is to make and enforce policy. The superintendent is the only direct employee of the board. As such, the superintendent is ultimately responsible and is held accountable for the performance of the staff and every school. School boards should ensure that the resources required to improve a failing school are available."
Do you support merit pay for teachers?	"Assuming that there is an objective measure of teacher performance, then merit pay would be appropriate."
How should the district handle underperforming teachers?	"Underperforming teachers can be the result of many things, and therefore handling an underperforming teacher needs to be individualized to what is best for that teacher. Expectations should be clear with appropriate assistance to the area of required improvement."
How would you work to improve community-school board relations?	"The key to openness is visibility and accessibility. Continuing to make it a practice to be in the community as much as possible and to engage patrons at multiple events is important."

Campaign website

Bowling provided the following statements on her campaign website:

“	My Priorities Efficient use of funds. We are facing challenging financial times in the state of Kansas and it is critical that we protect funding to our classrooms. Blue Valley has a long record of excellent education, and we have been fortunate to have our patrons support local option budgets and bond referendums to sup-plement our funding. As with any budget, we must always look for ways to ensure that our spending is both efficient and meets the needs of our students and patrons. Are we re-evaluating our current budget based on needs and benefits rather than history? Our belts are being tightened, but we must make sure that our students continue to have the opportunities in the classroom to ensure their success beyond high school. Blue Valley has a reputation of ex-cellence that reaches far beyond our local community, that attracts families from all over and that lends to the economic success of our community. We must preserve the funding to our classrooms. Every child, every school. As a board member in Blue Valley we represent every child in every school. Every decision we make should ensure that the best interests of the students are kept at the forefront. Placing quality teachers in every classroom is a priority and needs to continue to be a focus. Profes-sional development for our teachers is critical to achieving that. My priority is for every student to become ready for their next step in life, whether that is attending college or starting a career. This involves not only academic performance but also the personal growth of every child. Are we teaching our kids to be organized, to be critical thinkers, and to be lifelong learners? Per-sonalized learning is a necessity but so is personal guidance. Our children should have a con-nection with someone in our district that will help them to begin to discover their passions and to encourage them to reach beyond their imaginations. Maintain trajectory of success for the district and its students. Blue Valley has a history of success that has been unparalleled, but we cannot rest. We must continue to benchmark against best practices, including comparing ourselves to other school systems worldwide. I believe it is time that we begin to ask ourselves what does the classroom of the future look like? What skills should we be teaching? Our most recent strategic planning session showed us that we want successful young adults with skills in critical thinking, organiza-tion, technology and students who are compassionate. How are we going to achieve this? CAPS was one program that took us “outside the box” and has been an overwhelming success. It is time for us to venture outside the box again, to dream and to plan for the future.	”
—Cindy Bowling's campaign website (2015)

See also

• Blue Valley Unified School District 229, Kansas
• Blue Valley Unified School District 229 elections (2015)
• Hot tub Gatorade, turnout in Peoria and the Wisconsin state budget... (April 8, 2015)

External links

• Search Google News for this topic
• Campaign website
• Facebook campaign page
• Twitter feed